'Let Me Get This Straight' About the Atlanta Falcons' New Stadium

The Atlanta Falcons will be getting a new stadium in time for the 2017 season. It will be an open-air facility that many expect to compete for Super Bowl-hosting duties upon completion.

There's just one glaring issue: the city already has an NFL stadium, one that's barely 20 years old. But the plan is to demolish the Georgia Dome as soon as the new, currently-unnamed arena is completed.

What a waste.

The NFL seems to be in an almost cannibalistic quest to get new stadiums in place for its teams, regardless of the costs for the cities that host them. While the accounting is made less and less obvious for these projects, it's still clear that the teams themselves are only interested in footing as little of the bill as possible.

And once another team gets a new stadium, all the other teams want their own home fields updated as well. This, coupled with declines in game-day attendance league-wide, presents a scenario where a building like the Georgia Dome would meet an early demise.

That's my first topic in a new series we're titling, "Let Me Get This Straight," where I'll be pointing out the awesome and the absurd in today's NFL. Check out our maiden voyage of this production with our video above and leave your own thoughts on the Great NFL Stadium Race in the comments below.